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"Mardi Gras" without the bells..Courtesy Wbai..

First off,this is my first post..I've been looking at these forums off and on for about 2 years..Great site!Go to Wbai.orgSearch the archives for Sunday Dec.16th for the "Underground Railroad" which has been my favorite show online for 5 years..Legendary statusAround the 59 minute mark,right after Kool G. Rap's "Road To The Riches" J Smooth starts playing it.J Smooth even says thank's to Biz..Now on computer speakers,it's kind of heard to tell,but the bells sound panned out,although you can still barely hear them..Whoever recorded it,has it on loop.I hope people find this audio at least a little bit informative.The Archives won't stay up forever,so go check it out.PEACE!

I have a friend who had this big grin on his face when he said to me... "Yo, Find that Too Late To Turn Back Now beat..." I calmly reach into a pile of records and pull out Jackie Mittoo and say "You mean this one?" His grin turns into a frown as he replys "Yeah..."

For some people its all about the thrill of the chase, once something is in hand, the thrill is gone...

yea, the bells sound panned out and there's the crowd noise however, the crowd noise is identical to the crowd noise you can hear on the normal cut (very low in the mix but gets louder near the end of that bar)

if the no bells cut is really a "second take" how come the crowd noise is nearly identical? sounds like it would be more of a different MIX of it released for the 12. all talk previously made it sound like it was a totally different session without any bells at all, and that's crap because you can obviously hear the bells panned out

sound real good...gotta be careful now and days cuz there was a fake reissue that came out a couple of months ago that had some eq and panning going on to achieve that efect.If you listen close you can hear the bells a little which might just mean that the original was just a test press that came out wrong or something like hat....

I've listened to it a few times in a row and it sounds pretty legit, but now everytime I listen to it I can hear the bells in my head.......

its not just in your head... i can hear fragments of it in there, besides the crowd noise. this sounds like a (re)mix where they turned down the bells track on the master, but the sound bled in another mic or something, just a bit. if it is a 12", a remix like that would make sense.

it would be nice to hear the whole track. from this loop i get the impression the track the same as the original except the bells are muted for 2 bars or something. it would be nice to know for sure. without a label scan, people are forever going to be questioning it, assuming some sorta tech trickery.

yea, the bells sound panned out and there's the crowd noise however, the crowd noise is identical to the crowd noise you can hear on the normal cut

First thing I noticed.It's like the did the old let's just sample the right(or left) side of the lp.

Even If it's legit, Still a dope post and welcome aboard homie!

to my knowledge bob james two came out on columbia tappan zee and cti, i have the first two and there is no way that you would be able to pan out the bells to this extent, (havent heard the cti).... so from my point of view this snippet sounds like the real thing!

Remind me why this record is supposed to exist in the first place? Why did CTI / whoever make it?

Doesn't sound real, never been seen, and most of all doesn't make sense how someone was able to see into the future and figure out that someday people would want a version without bells, which are what the song is all about so to speak. Or am I missing the in joke humor here?

For those who are interested, the same story goes on with "last night" and the telephone ring. Dusty sent me 3 versions long time ago. Crazy. I didnt even know that so many versions existed. He told me there's the 45 one, the album one, and another one. Does anyone carry the 3 versions?

I still say, even not having heard the version you're talking about, there is hardly any limit to what you can do with modern audio technology as far as filtering and whatnot goes, so until I hold the record in my hand, put a needle to the groove and hear the drums sans bells I don't think I'll believe it's the real thing.

And even if that ever happened (unlikely), I'd probably say "wow, neat!" and that would be it.

A long time ago, during the late nineties/early '00s break collecting craze, Big Daddy magazine (R.I.P.) interviewed Biz Markie, who was resurrecting his career through DJing. The interviewer asked Biz to name some raer breaks he owned, and among the titles he mumbled, he said 'Get Thy Bearings' by Donovan (hardly a great break don't start), and 'Mardi Gras' w/out the bells , which at the time was treated with some derision, and yet the lingering doubt that such a raer could exist started the quest...

For those who are interested, the same story goes on with "last night" and the telephone ring.

Basically, yeah - it makes sense that there might be an alternate mix, and doing it "without the bells" isn't on some futuristic clairvoyant shit - it's just keeping the disco DJ in mind. Easier to mix. Seems like this could've been done without Bob James himself really knowing about it, just a marketing decision really.

Maybe Phill or someone could illuminate whether this record was ever really big in the clubs (as opposed to the park jams) - seems exceptionally rare for a 12" even considering the promo only rarities out there.

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